Mission à haut risque

"John Alexander" (Steven Seagal) is an assassin who has been very successful with what he does for a living. So capable in fact, that he now believes that he needs to atone for the many bad things he has done over the course of his life. He gets this opportunity following a successful contract hit in Ukraine when he finds himself caught up in the middle of a situation involving a prostitute named "Nadia" (Adina Stetcu) and a murderous, sexual pervert with enormous influence who goes by the title of "the Boss" (Vinnie Jones). However, what he doesn't fully appreciate is just how influential "the Boss" actually is and because of that he becomes a target himself. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie actually started off pretty good. Unfortunately, it proceeded to get more and more unrealistic as the film progressed with several scenes involving both John Alexander and his friend "Chi" (Byron Mann) willingly throwing down their firearms in order to defeat their fully-armed opponents using only their martial arts skills. Naturally, I could understand this scenario if they were caught off-guard or if they had exhausted all of their ammunition while exchanging gunfire. But professionals don't go to a gunfight armed with just a knife or their bare knuckles. It just doesn't happen. That said, those who enjoy martial arts action for its own sake might really like this movie. But those who want a semblance of reality might be a bit disappointed. In any case, while it wasn't necessarily a bad film, it could have been better and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

With a trend of increasingly faster and more brutal action choreography in recent years, there's not much space for Seagal's large frame, no matter how many wrists he snaps. For an action movie, the action scenes themselves are far from believable, a lot of choppy editing and excessive use of doubles make it laughably bad. At least the trademark of Seagal's movie is still here; his near superhuman portrayal, perfect accuracy and untouchable in fight, even though what he does is just randomly waves his hand.

Seagal is tasked to wrap up a potential terrorist by his handler. After an unfortunate event he finds himself protecting a random girl. This is truly an absurd script, the girl literally falls on his laps and then Seagal laments about his existent in his usual erratic mumbling. None of the scenes involving him are convincing, either it's the action or acting. It's just awkward like seeing a grandpa flirt with a girl or a veteran operative waltz in a room and not getting shot because he's wearing plot armor.

Byron Mann and Vinnie Jones are also present, both of them are decent. Byron Mann performs much better despite being a sidekick character. Vinnie Jones is looking grim as always, even though his appearance is relatively short in the movie. The rest of the cast are stiff. At some points the supporting characters sound like they are reading or even spelling the script. Needless to say, the screenplay of elaborate syndicate is nowhere near engaging.

Action is brutally weak. Seagal would do some gestures that probably resemble fighting and the camera cut off to stuntman flying across the room. Majority of the scenes are also played by doubles, it's quite apparent when the shot cuts to their back that not all of the actors are involved in the stunts. It's even worse when Seagal does this transparent excuse of action choreography in a movie where he's supposed to lead.

One must wonder how much longer can Seagal relies only on his fading name because story and choreography are flimsy even by standard of ten years ago.

Apart from his superhuman (untouchable) nature in most movies (even against the best of opponents), I like Segal's movies and this is not an exception. If anything, this is better than many of his past movies and I could not believe the low rating on here.

For the benefit of those that are not that picky and just want some reasonable action, read my brief review below.

FOR:

I am giving it 8/10 because of:

• The suspense (was good enough) - The action (not the best choreography but enjoyable)

AGAINST:

The main thing I have against this movie is the bad acting of some of the actors/actresses especially the non-Americans.

Without any spoilers as a direct to DVD film this is one of Seagal better efforts. Please don't listen to the critic's Technically it's a well executed film. Seagal and Mann make a great team together and whilst Vinnie Jones is not in the film a great deal he's a very believable bad guy because quite frankly playing psychos is what Vinnie does best.

I rated It an 8 as an action film because the story and pace and action kept me entertained.

I do recommend this to fans of Seagal.

Please view for yourself and decide.

John Alexander (Seagal) & Chi (Byron Mann) are hired professional killers who are on a mission to execute a terrorists in Romania & they do it perfectly but then they meet a girl who just escaped from a sinister syndicate that torture & traffic girls. Alexander decides to help this girl & kill the syndicate. That's the nice & easy simplicity of this damn good Action B-movie & one of Seagal best in ages. With Low-budget B-movies & Seagal films you know exactly what your getting & that's violent action & no nonsense. The main reason we always checkout Seagal's films, even though their often cheap flicks, is because he delivers easy watching action & we love action. Seagal's cheap B-movies gives us escapism, we get to see evil bad guys of the world get what they deserve. In real life to often the scum escape real justice but in Seagal's movie world they get it brutally & i love it. I had alot of fun with "Absolution" & it gave me exactly what i wanted & abit more (with a very good Seagal) & some damn good bloody shootouts, fights & stabbings all filmed well.

First off the film looks really good & not cheap. It has a slick look & looked no different from the likes of Cinema released Neeson Action films. A decent score & decent performances all round. Hard thug actor Vinnie Jones adds real grit to film by playing a psycho & sadistic crime boss that films himself torturing beautiful girls & of course trafficks them. Byron Mann is very good as Alexander's partner in Action & is a loyal sidekick & a martial arts master who has Starred with Seagal before in A Dangerous Man & Belly of the Beast (both good one's) & the ageing Master himself Seagal is the best he's been in a long time. Here Seagal is definitely into the movie & his character. Seagal puts in a decent performance (best in ages) Seagal is a big tough brutal force here as Mercenary Alexander (a character he's played before in the crappy "A Good Man") & it's so nice to see the big guy actually into his role for a change. Seagal is brutal & enjoyable on screen & who doesn't love a killing machine like Seagal taking out the world's evil trash?

I've noticed in Seagal Direct-to-dvd B-flicks that he's always killing off bad guys in European underbelly places & his films have a harshness to them & are nearly always filmed in sleazy clubs with lots of beautiful ladies & full of tough thugs & i love it.

Seagal became a Charles Bronson type as he got older.

Simply a damn good action-packed Thriller with a decent Seagal & made on a small budget but it delivered. I do genuinely enjoy most of Seagal's B-movies but "Absolution" is definitely one of the best made (cinematography, music, Seagal, action) & is as good as most big budget movies.